When my associate/partner/friend Michael Perlis successfully got me to agree to take on consulting clients (yes it took awhile) my only concern was that I didn’t want to do any less wine writing. So, instead, after every pitch we made was accepted, I gave up some of my non-wine writing gigs.

I knew that I had to give up something I didn’t need to do in order to do something that would be more profitable. Now the challenge would be, could we get our own clients to see things this way too?

It was obvious to us that anyone who wanted to hire a consultant needed some help. A client would tell us what they want accomplish, we would do a study of their business, and then come back with our proposal.

Some clients said yes to everything; they were not on the edge of losing their businesses, and we were only there to market a well-conceived plan. This has been the case with the wine fests we have assisted in marketing.

However, other businesses, such as wineries and restaurants, called us in for help that required them to give up something to do something new. Much like I did.

And we could also see that those companies, like a marriage on the verge of a break-up, waited a long time before calling in a counselor. And their immediate reaction to our proposals, well, they were like a knee jerk kick to our stomachs.

Our proposals (which is a timeline of changes we wanted to make before bringing in new customers) are made to help insure that a new customer would return. These clients had a habit of just checking off the items at the end of the proposal.

This is a very shortsighted way of “Give me the reward now and it’s enough.” And, if I can go back to the marriage counselor scenario: One visit with a counselor is going to straighten out years of a miss-managed marriage?

We think not. There is a difference in marketing and consulting; and the consulting has to come before the marketing. If that’s not what you are looking for, you are not looking for us.

If your model isn’t working – listen to what we are trying to do to change it. Whether it’s training a restaurant staff on wine service or changing a hard-sell approach in a winery, this is why you hire us to consult, then market.

Which brings me to the title of this column. One client, exasperated with me as I quoted negative Yelp reviews, wine pricing, management techniques and basic branding said, “It’s just wine.”

That three-word sentence really got me thinking.

If your business is wine know this: There are reasons, beyond common business logic, why people drink wine. We can’t even go total screw cap because of the “romance” of popping a cork. Wine drinkers are not like beer drinkers; give us a nice crystal glass to taste from. Don’t hold my bottle of wine between your thighs as you retrieve the cork. Don’t open my bottle of wine behind the counter. Don’t serve yourself a sample of my wine unless I offer it to you.

And from there I’d add more: Don’t pitch me anything if I didn’t ask for it. If I said yes to a taste, that’s a taste. Wait for me to ask for more. No one wants to dine in a restaurant or taste at a wine bar where the staff has an agenda. If I wanted to buy a timeshare I wouldn’t sit in for the 90-minute or more sales pitch, I’d just buy it.

Play nice, don’t bad mouth other wineries or restaurants. Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties have done a lot to market their wine trails. Each winery is vested in return business and having each winery look good. And wine people like to “shop” at more than one winery when out for a day of tasting – these trails get that, and so should you if you want to see growth.

Michael, when I told him about this conversation said, “Our new slogan is IAATW. It’s All About The Wine.”

We aren’t selling cars. We are selling wine. Take a lesson from Clos Pepe winemaker Wes Hagen, “The perfect meal is 33 percent wine, 33 percent food and 33 percent company. I’d rather drink shitty wine with this group than the best wine in the world with a bunch of d—-.”

Yes, I could go on, but you’d have to pay us. And we don’t work with d—- either.

Yes, foie gras is back. Whether or not you choose to eat it is your personal choice, but unless you are a vegetarian, the cruelty argument just doesn’t seem to apply. I believe that the geese and ducks involved are in some cases raised more humanely than the cows, pigs and chickens that you/we choose to eat. (http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/01/foie-gras-new-fire-for-an-old-debate.html among others.) Although the issue keeps rearing its ugly head — a recent twitter exchange on the topic was supposedly responsible for the termination of the long-time chef at the Tam O’Shanter restaurant, according to Eater.

I’m not really one for tasting notes and heavy-duty analysis of the wines I am tasting. Pretty much: do I like it and how much do I like it? But I found the “Court of Master Sommeliers – Deductive Tasting Format” to be a pretty helpful guide in going through a tasting and analyzing why you might like or not like about what you are trying. When you don’t like a wine, is it because it is flawed, or because the wine’s characteristics just don’t appeal to you?

With all the reality shows, especially those about food, why can’t we get one that sticks about wine? We’ve had a few over the years, but they’ve never lasted. After I wrote these two sentences, I read on Wine Industry Advisor that “pop culture icon and award winning actress Natalie Oliveros” is slated to host a travel show with an emphasis on wine. Maybe her fans who knew her as adult film actress Savanna Samson will help make this show a hit. [Note that I can no longer find the article on the Wine Industry Advisor website.]

My suggestion to you – when you’re at a restaurant and your server is opening your wine bottle, don’t engage him/her in conversation. Most bottles are pretty easy to open, right? But occasionally you get an inexperienced server or a wine cork that is a little less than perfect and next thing you know you have a wine disaster to deal with.

Scientific American published an article that originally appeared in Chemistry World. The article reported on a study that proved that wine glass shape does affect flavor. So there. [But really, they needed a study for this? What happened to good old empirical evidence?]

I really can’t help myself. The Drinks Business recently reported that, in a comparison test of Australian red wines aged under screwcap versus cork, those with screwcaps came out ahead. The wines ranged in vintage from 2001 to 2005. “An international panel of judges voted in favour of the expressions aged under screwcap, a particularly impactful result to occur on Italian soil, where this closure was until recently banned from use in many of the country’s most prestigious wines such as Brunello di Montalcino, and still remains controversial.”

Robert Sinskey of Sinkey Vineyards published an article on Eater wherein he expressed the opinion that sommeliers are more important than critics’ scores. Of course, this opened up the proverbial can of worms. My take on it – yes, if I am talking with a restaurant sommelier I respect and who I feel understands what I might like, I am probably going to take his/her recommendation over a critic who I have never spoken to. Note that I hardly ever pay much attention to scores and am more interested in how the critic describes a particular wine. It does need to be noted that the only place you are probably going to find a credentialed sommelier is at a fine dining restaurant and the rest of the time you are pretty much on your own. What do you do then? Well, you should use as many resources as possible, including us here at Eve’s Wine 101.

The Wine Economist recently shared some statistics from Wine Business Monthly showing that the largest growth in the US wine industry in 2014 took place in the segment of wines priced at $20 and above. While the industry as a whole grew by 3.4% in 2014, the $20+ segment grew by 15.7%. What struck me most though was that, while the growth in the premium wine segment was impressive, this part of the industry only made up $822 million of a $12.5+ billion industry, just slightly more than 6.5% of the total market. My point is that, fine wine drinkers make up a very small percentage of the overall wine drinking market. With the $20+ wine market only making up such a small part of the industry, and knowing that it is pretty hard to find anything good until you get well that number, one has to wonder what most people really feel about what they are drinking. As Eve asks: What’s in your glass?

Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. Michael is also Vice President of Eve Bushman Consulting (fka Eve’s Wine 101 Consulting) http://evebushmanconsulting.com/ and President of MCP Financial. Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com or michael@evebushmanconsulting.com

LOS ANGELES – 100% Cork (www.100percentcork.org<http://www.100percentcork.org>) said today that recent independent market research of wine sales in restaurants and retail outlets confirms the growing preference by U.S. consumers for wines sealed with natural cork over all artificial closures at all price points.

Wine & Spirits’ “25th Annual Survey of the Top 50 Restaurant Wine Brands (http://www.corkqc.com/S-mat/Top50.pdf) asked wine directors at 218 restaurants to name their 10 best-selling wines. Their responses were compiled into a list of the Top 50 Restaurant Brands. Results were presented for 2013 and for the previous 10 years. The results for 2013 by closure type showed that brands primarily finished with cork accounted for 90 percent of the Top 50 Restaurant Brands, up 21 percent, as compared to ten years ago. Brands primarily finished with screw caps showed a 39 percent decline and brands using synthetic closures were down by 70 percent, as reported by wine directors.

These restaurant results are reinforced at the retail level by Nielsen Tracking Surveys for the U.S. Market for the four weeks ended April 26, 2014. According to Nielsen’s latest figures, sales of premium wines sealed with cork continued to outpace wines sealed with artificial stoppers at all retail price points. The survey ranked the top 100 premium brands by gross revenue from domestic 750 ml table wine sales during the previous 12 months. Premium brands were defined as those averaging over $6 per bottle during the last 12 months.

Since 2010, sales of the top 100 premium brands sealed with cork were up by 36 percent, compared to 8 percent for wines with artificial closures. Other Nielsen highlights include:

· Total case sales for the top 100 premium brands during the four-week period, were up 21 percent over the same period in 2010. Wines sealed with cork were up 37 percent; wines with artificial closures showed a 5% increase.

· The median price among the top 100 premium brands was $12.87 for wines sealed with cork, compared to $8.81 for wines with artificial closures. The average price of cork finished wines was $11.31; the average price for wines with artificial closures was $9.34.

· Revenues at every price point for the top 100 premium brands showed that wines sealed with cork led all categories and were particularly dominant in wines priced over $10.

“The results from these two national surveys demonstrate why it is in the wineries’ best economic interest to use cork closures,” said Peter Weber, Executive Director of the Cork Quality Council. “Whether it is in a restaurant or at a retail outlet, wine consumers overwhelmingly and consistently choose wines that are sealed with natural cork.”

Joao Ferreira, president of the Portuguese Cork Association, added, “These positive results for cork should inspire all natural cork companies to maintain their focus on providing the highest quality product. As cork producers and wine lovers, we have an obligation to continue the 200-year bond between cork and wine, which not only enriches the wine experience, but also helps to mitigate global warming and improves the lives of thousands of men in women who work in the cork groves and in our companies.”

About 100% Cork

100% Cork is a campaign to educate North American wine consumers, retailers and wineries about the benefits of choosing wine with natural cork closures because of cork’s environmental, technical and societal advantages and its popularity among wine consumers. More information can be found at www.100percentcork.org<http://www.100percentcork.org/>.

As an aerospace engineer I deal with a lot of problems and issues. In this role it is very important to review all of the details before presenting results to management and finally customers. Most of you know my love of natural cork closures for wines. However, I have many colleagues and friends that love screw caps as an alternative. I am not going to write another article on the pros and cons of these two closures as we have beaten this to death. This topic will always present a difference of opinion. This difference is based mostly on the intended use of the wine. The most important thing is to make sure not to overlook the details, whether big or small, when trying to determine the source of Trichloroanisole (TCA) or corked wines.

People almost always blame cork as the source for TCA in wines when it gives that musty, wet paper or cardboard smell. For the most part the general public cannot detect TCA below 6-8 nanograms/liter. There is a very small percentage of individuals with a very keen sense of smell and taste that can detect TCA at around 2 nanograms/liter, but these are a select few and are by no means the majority. TCA in natural cork has been reduced dramatically over the years via new technology and means of detection as well as cleaning/sanitizing processes. Laboratories are now using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) which is used to identify trace chemicals, such as TCA, down to levels as low as 0.5 nanograms/liter.

Another change that has taken place is in the cleaning process which includes the removal of chlorine as a sanitizing agent both in cork and the equipment during the wine making process. The United Cork Council has performed laboratory tests on corks for TCA providing us with measurable results using high tech calibrated equipment that allows statistical analyses on the effectivity of TCA removal from natural cork. The actual lab test results acquired provides useable metrics that we can statistically show the accuracy of the possible amount of TCA present in corks. But why does no one look beyond the cork if a wine is tainted with TCA? Generally, it is felt that they have found the smoking gun if the bottle uses natural cork and come to the conclusion to eliminate cork closures.

Then what about cases where a winery has been found to be the source and not the cork? Does anyone add this into the equation? Four wineries that have suffered from TCA, where corks were not the cause were Hanzell, Chateau Montelana, Beaulieu Vineyard and Gallo. If there are four I am sure there are others. In the case of Hanzell, the winery was shut down for 6 months to find the cause of TCA in their wines. The source of the TCA was found to be two of the original transfer pipes that were about 50 years old. These pipes were stained purple stemming from years of use within the winery.

So here is a situation where it doesn’t matter what type of closure is used in the bottles, TCA taint is present in the wine itself. Placing wine from any of these four TCA affected wineries into corked bottles, in my opinion, leads to the cork closure being used as the scapegoat. Jumping on the bandwagon becomes the automatic conclusion rather than pursuing additional research to determine the actual root cause of the TCA source. This lack of true statistics and understanding is one of the prime drivers being used to switch to screw caps and eliminate cork closures. Now comes this scenario…what if these four wineries used screw caps as opposed to natural cork what would the conclusion be? Would the wine be looked at as the source or would the wine world now have a new term that the wine was “capped”?

The one thing to remember with issues like TCA is that you need to look at the big picture. If you only research a problem based on what is perceived to be the smoking gun you are masking or possibly covering up the real source of the problem. If you want to do due diligence the wine must be tested pre and post bottling to validate the source. Corks are already screened through new processes that have been put into place by the Cork Council at cork producing facilities. Christian Butzke, PH.D. of the Associate Professor Food Science, Purdue University Stated in his article Cork Taint, ” The habit of blaming cork may explain why estimates of TCA contamination based on anecdotal evidence range from 2 percent to 10 percent and above. But a large and growing amount of hard evidence concludes that the incidence of TCA has dropped precipitously in recent years and is commonly measured at less than 1 percent of wines sealed with real cork.”

So whatever you do make sure that you look at the BIG PICTURE and all of the possibilities before drawing a conclusion. As these aforementioned wineries discovered they in fact were the culprit and not the cork. Something that I’m sure came as a shock to a lot of people in the wine world as well as the wineries themselves. In these instances the scapegoat, being the cork, was vindicated however the disagreement on closures in wine will go on for years to come.

First of all, let’s get one thing clear – Marquis is pronounced “mar-KWIZ”. So go back and reread last week’s article with the correct pronunciation in your head.

I really wanted to know what Sparky felt were the driving factors in Mollydooker’s success, especially in the United States, when so many Australian producers seem to have foundered.

Now there is a lot of detail on the Mollydooker website – a LOT of detail – explaining much more than I could hope to put in this article. I encourage everybody to explore it as there is much interesting information. I just want to report on here what Sparky and I discussed.

The answer really seemed to come down to just a few things: consistent high quality, a customer base that provides better marketing for them than any marketing campaign could, and a little thing called the “Mollydooker shake”.

The consistent high quality is what Sparky refers to as the “WOW” factor, when the customer is drinking a wine that he/she feels is two quality levels higher than what the bottle cost. Sparky says this is accomplished by first achieving the desired “fruit weight” using their “vineyard watering programme”. Only grapes that result in wines that have the right “fruit weight” (which Sparky said is a measure of how long the palate experiences the “silky sensation of fruit before feeling the prickly sensation of structure”) are selected for Mollydooker wines, and it is the measure of fruit weight that determines which level of Mollydooker wines the grapes are used for.

Sparky said he applies three rules to Mollydooker wines:

Would I drink a glass of this?

Would I drink a bottle of this?

…by myself?

To this end, he and Sarah rarely drink any other wine than Mollydooker, preferring to monitor solely what is going on with their wines rather than being concerned about what other winemakers were doing. (They do occasionally have some Jack Daniels.) Sparky said if more winemakers spent time drinking their own wines, they would probably stop making some of them.

Customer support is, of course, critical to Mollydooker’s success. Sparky said they do very little real marketing. Instead, their customers act as ambassadors for the brand. Key to this is Mollydooker’s great customer service. I’ve had my own interactions with Mollydooker’s staff, including Sparky’s mother Janet, and have always received outstanding treatment. Sparky said that wine is different from other products in the way it connects people and contributes to relationship and friendships. Their approach to customer service is just an outgrowth of this.

Even though Mollydooker does minimal formal marketing, Sparky spoke at a marketing seminar recently, where he said he told the attendees: You can market whatever you want as long as everything you say is true.

And the fans of Mollydooker clearly believe this. So, the goal is to get more fans, and to keep them happy. One of the ways they are currently doing this is with a promotion called “Empty the Warehouse – Lips on Glasses” wherein Mollydooker is subsidizing its distributors to enable restaurants to offer Mollydooker at close to retail pricing. More “lips on glasses” results in more ambassadors for Mollydooker.

And, of course, there is that Mollydooker Shake. Have you heard of it?

According to Sparky, it really started because he wanted to be able to drink wine with his sister, who is highly allergic to sulfites. So, he searched for an alternative preservative and settled on nitrogen. But, Sparky said that the downside was that the nitrogen “flattened” the flavor. The solution they came up with was to open the bottle, pour, out a small amount, close the bottle, invert it and shake it, and then open the bottle to release the nitrogen. The Mollydooker Shake was born.

Sparky related the story where early on in Mollydooker’s history he was meeting with his wine distributor at a restaurant in Hawaii, and performed the Mollydooker Shake on all the wines prior to having the representative taste them. Little did he know that Hawaii’s #1 wine writer was also dining at the same restaurant, and she was surprised to learn that he was Sparky Marquis, as she had previously told her dining companions that the man shaking the bottles must know nothing about wine. That’s when Sparky knew he needed to pass this information on to his customers.

An article about Mollydooker wouldn’t be complete for Eve’s Wine 101 readers without discussing the fact that all Mollydooker’s wines are bottled under screwcap. I asked Sparky how he deals with those who are still opposed to that type of closure, and he replied he had essentially given up, as there was no rational opposition. Sparky said they had recently opened up several older wines from his winemaking days with other wineries, to share with employees at the Mollydooker Golden Oldies dinner, held at the Marquis household for employees with more than five years of service. The wines had all been sealed with natural cork, and they all showed some sign of deterioration, with a large percentage of them clearly suffering from cork taint.

Sparky said that, in his experience, one in 12 wines bottled with natural cork have cork taint, with another 2 out of 12 wines suffering from what he referred to as “stealth cork”, which while not showing all the negative attributes from cork taint, had been negatively impacted enough to make the wine taste off.

So, the decision was made from the start to only use screwcaps. At first, they did use cork on their top of the line Velvet Glove bottling, but that ended with the 2009 vintage.

The mention of Velvet Glove brought up the accident in 2011, when a full container of the 2010 vintage was accidentally dropped and destroyed, at a value of over $1,000,000. And, even though it was insured, it was still a pretty devastating occurrence, as Sarah and Sparky saw a huge portion of their flagship wine destroyed. But, Sparky said “The outpouring of support and worldwide empathy was so humbling it changed our lives.”

Photo from the Cambodia charity project

But, even before that, Sarah and Sparky had realized how fortunate they were and felt the need to give back. What started in 2008 with creating a special bottling of their Two Left Feet wine called Sip it Forward for which all profits would go to the Transform Cambodia project, they decided that wasn’t enough and now donate a portion of their overall profits to organizations such as:

Transform Cambodia

Mercy Ministries, USA

Hutt St Centre, AUS

Chester County Futures, USA

Sparky ended the conversation sounding somewhat amazed at how fortunate they had been. They had started Mollydooker from nothing, achieved incredible success, and had the opportunity to give back. The fact that he took the time to talk to me at 6:30 AM his time to accommodate my schedule, the same week that he had been talking with Marvin Shanken of the Wine Spectator about finalizing plans for the upcoming New York Wine Experience, meant a lot to me.

Occasionally, Sarah and Sparky host winemaker dinners in the U.S. I’ve always seemed to miss their previous visits, but am looking forward to the next time they are in Southern California, probably sometime early next year. I’ll let you know when it is happening.

In the meantime, go out and get some Mollydooker and give it a shake. I dare you!

Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. (2013 Update: Eve and Michael announced Eve Wine 101 Consulting. Info is here: http://evewine101.com/press-releases/) Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com.

There are times that I wish I was not so technical but I am what I am, the plague of being a rocket scientist for 30 years I guess.Recently I wrote an article on corks where I covered the proper way for a server to place a cork to the right of the patron who ordered the bottle and why this is done.In this article I explained how you can check for leaks and verify that the cork is soft from proper or improper storage.There are quite a few people who feel that corks do not offer the best protection for wines and therefore every aspect needs to be reviewed to guarantee the wine is servable before it is poured.So what about screw caps?How many times have you seen servers leave the cap to the right of the patron who ordered the bottle for his or her review?Should this be done rather than the server immediately dropping it into their apron as they would the foil from a wine that has a cork?Have you ever seen a server inspect the cap before pouring the wine?

This week I opened a bottle of wine from Paso Robles that had a screw cap and found a big surprise,something that I would have never had suspected.Below are three pictures of the screw cap that I removed.

Looking at the outside of the cap you notice that itis deformed and dented.These caps are made from aluminum that is very soft and thin.It doesn’t take much to cause an indentation.In this casethe bottle that I opened this indentation deformed the inner seal causing a leak.This can be seen by the wine that has migrated up and over the seal in the two pictures of the inside of the cap.I also found wine in the threads of the cap which are difficult to see in the pictures due to inaccessibility of the camera.However, this creates a situation that is no different than a wine that has a cork closure resulting in oxidation of the wine.

In engineering we are often asked to do risk assessment of situations.Which would be more likely to allow oxygen from getting into the bottle through a leak a cork or a screw cap?This could be lengthy as there are many variables.If wines are properly stored to prevent drying they have a lot of benefits.The cork is recessed and has a lot of surface area to seal the wine in the bottle.This removes impact damage as a probable cause as well as the cork hasa very large seal.Looking at the screw cap we see that the cap is on the outer surface of the bottle making it susceptible to impact during bottling, boxing, shipping and handling.The seal inside of the cap is very small in surface area and the slightest deformation will allow wine to leak out and oxygen to migrate in.

In conclusion, I am beginning to realize that what has been stated over and over in wine circles that it will probably continue to take many years, if not decades, for us to realize the truth about the pros and cons of screw caps over cork or vice-versa.For me, I will probably ask to see the screw cap if I order a wine that has such a closure after this learning experience.I actually believe that the cap should be placed on the table next to the person that ordered it for inspection when served at a restaurant or bar, just as a cork would be.It may not be as romantic as a cork being placed on the table but it allows the guest the ability to evaluate the seal before the wine is poured.The bottle that I discovered the leaky screw cap was not over oxidized but it did not taste the same as what I sampled in Paso.As a recommendation in purchasing bottles with screw caps, I would avoid the ones that show signs of impact or have dents as you may not be getting what you expect.

The closure saga between cork and twist caps continue. The difference now is that we are developing some metrics as some wineries have chosen use the new closures and letting go of traditional cork. I would like to cover a couple of items in this article with regards to cork and screw cap closures. First, how much effect will the switch to screw caps have on wines that collectors plan to cellar and second, what negative effects are the new closures having on wines? Some editors, such as James Laube of Wine Spectator Magazine, recently wrote an article in the April 2013 edition titled, “Time to Dump The Cork.” In reading this, he has alluded that the grasp that some of us have on using corks is all based on tradition and not on performance. I beg to differ.

Since my last article that brought out comments from the cork council on TCA, I feel the same thing is happening with blaming tradition on why people do not want to change. The weakness involves extensive research and study before saying corks have no benefits and screw caps are the answer for all future wines. I would like to share some of the variables that question or resolve the issues on corks and twist caps that I have found.

I have always believed that a very small amount of oxygen is required by wines that collectors intend to cellar. This can be 10 years to decades depending on the wine and the collector. The caveat to this is that there must be sufficient sulfur dioxide (SO2) present to neutralize the effects of oxygen on the wine preventing the wine from oxidizing.

Cork is a very dense material that is made of many tiny cells which contain air. Richard Grant Peterson, PhD wrote, ” Remarkably, each cork cell is tetrakaidecahedral (14 sided). The math majors among us realize that it takes 14 sided bodies to exactly fill a space with uniform bodies of minimal surface dimensions and without interstices.” His belief is that the cork is a perfect seal thus preventing the cork from breathing. One piece of evidence used to support this position is Champagne. Champagne maintains constant positive pressure not allowing the CO2 gas to diffuse or pass through the cork. Even aged Champagnes with many years in the cellar maintain the distinct carbonation that they are known for. However, the one flaw with this bit of evidence is the size of the molecules involved. CO2 has 1 carbon atom attached to 2 oxygen atoms. This molecule is much larger than oxygen or O2 which only has 2 oxygen atoms. Does cork filter at a certain size?

Another piece of evidence in support that oxygen is present involves the amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2)that is present. Literature shows that normal wines after bottling typically have a loss of 5-6ppm of SO2. Remember that this is caused by direct contact and reaction with oxygen. SO2 is the chemical that helps preserve wine and protect it from oxidizing. Experiments have been run through careful processing verifying that oxygen was completely removed from a wine. Yet these tests still showed a 5-6ppm SO2 drop found in most wineries. So here is where you ask the question, “where did the so called nonexistent oxygen come from to cause the SO2 to drop?”

Now I am going to throw another curve ball. If cork is such a good seal that gas cannot pass through it, why do old cellared wines decrease in volume with age? Water and ethanol are also small molecules like O2. Another challenge to the permeability of wine was shown years ago when lead was used as wine foils or covers over the cork. Tests on wines that had these lead foil covers have shown that traces of lead were found in the wine over time if the lead were contacted by wine and dissolving the lead. Here is another question that must be asked, where did the wine come from to cause the lead cover to corrode? Did the wine leak directly through the cork or around the sides (poor seal)? All of these facts to me point toward showing that the cork is not a hermetic seal (100%).

Another fact that I found in literature that poses a real possibility is oxygen transfer. Maybe saying that a cork breathes is an incorrect statement and we should view it as transfer. Saying that a cork breathes implies there is a vacuum in the bottle. Transfer of oxygen from the cork or cork/glass interface would be a very slow process as the oxygen would need to migrate to the wine at the wetted surface of the cork and diffuse into the wine. Again we have the question on how the oxygen gets to the wine if the cork is such a good seal. The SO2 test showed that oxygen does indeed get into the wine. This minor exchange could be the reason for allowing wines to age to splendor as it would be an extremely slow process over time.

Another fact that a lot of us have seen is on wines where plastic corks are used is that the cork is raised or protruding from the wine bottle. Further evidence that the cork is not an absolute barrier where plastic synthetic corks are. If this is the case, maybe the cork is working more like a selective filter where gas molecules of a certain size will penetrate and others do not. CO2 in Champagne for example verses O2. Two different sizes of gas molecules.

One more piece of evidence that shows that oxygen is finding its way into wines with real corks is the recent findings with some screw capped wines are found to contain trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). H2S gives the odor of rotten eggs. This has been one of the negative drawbacks noted in screw caps. The detection of H2S in bottles with corks becomes undetectable almost immediately after the bottle is opened and O2 is introduced. This is not the case with screw capped wine where H2Sis being found more frequently and can remain after the bottle has been opened. The chemistry is very simple. Hydrogen sulfide plus oxygen reacts producing sulfur dioxide and water (H2S + O2→ SO2 + H2O) which has no negative impacts to the wine obviously. However, this does not appear to be happening since screw caps prevents small amounts of oxygen from reaching the wine. If cork is impermeable, what is the oxygen source? It appears that the slight introduction of O2 prevents the effects being noted in screw caps. I also must add that the amount of H2S noted in screw caps is very small and will probably not be found by the average consumer.

In conclusion, you can see why this is such a controversial topic with many variables. If you look at each point that I brought up in this article, I believe that you will agree that some type of oxygen to wine exchange is occurring. I also believe that you can see that corks are not hermetic or 100% seals. Again, as I have stated many times in the past, I will stick with the use of a good real cork. The Cork Council and industry have mitigated a lot of the concerns of TCA. As I wrote in another article, it is also not the only source of TCA in our wines. I really have issues with people stating that removing cork will eliminate TCA. The beauty of seeing the potential of a Bordeaux or Burgundy over decades of time I feel will be lost with the new screw caps. Maybe this is why we are not seeing a French Chateau Lafitte Rothschild or Chateau Figeac Bordeaux getting on the band wagon to use screw caps. In fact, you see very few old world wines with screw caps. Maybe it is just a “Tradition”, something you don’t screw with.